Cayuga County man pleads guilty to stealing from state

A state prisons employee pleaded guilty today to receiving at least $100,000 in pay and reimbursements that he never earned.

Howard Dean, of Cayuga County, will be sentenced June 16 on the charge of second-degree grand larceny. He must pay back $100,000 to the state. He paid $25,000 of that in Oneida County Court today.

Dean, who ran the Food Production Center in Rome until he retired in 2008, admitted to state investigators last year he hadn't worked a Friday in 17 years but still got paid for them. A state comptroller investigation charged that he falsified hotel invoices, faked travel records and submitted fraudulent time sheets.

Dean will be sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation, said Oneida County Deputy District Attorney Mike Nolan.